Do I have to wait for my 19th anniversary of MFGG badge?

[Pedigree]

@Rayyan You're not doing anything bad by posting on MFGG.

I'm not an expert on COPPA (I don't believe anyone is - even huge sites like YouTube aren't sure how to handle it), but my understanding is that it applies only to commercial sites - it wouldn't normally apply to non-profit forums like MFGG.

It's also worth noting that the MFGG forums collect very little personal information, and anything can be removed if you (or your parents) are concerned.

The nonprofit clause in the law is to protect churches, animal shelters, etc. Not forum communities.

MFGG is not registered as a nonprofit and cannot benefit from that clause. But even if we were registered as a nonprofit, the FTC still pressures nonprofit entities to provide COPPA protections: "Although nonprofit entities generally are not subject to COPPA, the FTC encourages such entities to post privacy policies online and to provide COPPA's protections to their child visitors."

There is a reason COPPA comes by default with every forum software. I guarantee you are breaching MyBB terms of use/service by knowingly allowing members under 13. You are probably breaching our web host's terms of use/service by doing so as well.

You are crazy if you think our forum software doesn't collect enough personal information to breach COPPA. When they registered, they had to provide you a username, birth date (even if they can hide it, you still collected it), they had to provide a valid email address, you get their location in the world from their IP address, then every single post they ever make is considered protected data under COPPA especially if they were to accidentally reveal something sensitive like the city that they were in for vacation or that they were at a local-exclusive restaurant chain. It is really easy to reveal sensitive information indirectly and no amount of care from Rayyan would prevent it 100%.

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And this is all without mentioning that there are tons of liabilities and problems even outside of COPPA that come from knowingly allowing under 13 year old members to congregate with a bunch of teens and adults.

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I get that you want MFGG to be all inclusive, but it's not worth the risk to push this member to continue posting like you are, Vinny. If they had never revealed they were under 13, then there would be no problem. Plausible deniability. But we know now, and have to act accordingly.